The Depths, embroidered on canvas, buttons, ink and yarn are among materials used, 30×42 inches

When one uses sewing to incorporate a line on a fabric, it is much more labor-intensive than simply drawing a line with ink and yet women have embroidered fabric for ages… is it because of the more permanent aspect of it? That even if the colors were to run, the embroidery will adhere no matter how delicate, it will remain, worn and steady?

I taught myself back stitch for the sake of this project because I wanted to draw a parallel between a line drawn in ink and a line sewed into the fabric. Producing these pieces were a journey in and of itself…the repetitive careful rendition made it somewhat premeditated, yet each stitch was one of a kind tracing the contour of the figures rendering the softness and the angles in different ways. Making these works were A journey in more ways than one. My grandmother on hot afternoons would sit under the ceiling fan sewing kantha, A blanket made by layering well-worn cotton sarees with a very simple running stitch free form patterns. She never really sketched out anything, she did what she pleased and that’s how she passed her afternoons in making something creative with utility and she never thought to sign her name on any of them

I incorporated Kalamkarii folk art style into the works thus adding a layer of traditional story telling form. The borrowed motifs were drawn with a bamboo pen in keeping with tradition. “Kalamkari or qalamkari is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, produced in Iran and India. Its name originates in the Persian, derived from the words qalam (pen) and kari (craftmanship), meaning drawing with a pen. Only natural dyes are used in kalamkari and it involves seventeen steps. Started originally in the Sasani era in Iran (almost 2500 years ago), there are two distinctive styles of kalamkari art in India – the Srikalahasti style and the Machilipatnam style. The Srikalahasti style of kalamkari(Kalankari), wherein the “kalam” or pen is used for freehand drawing of the subject and filling in the colors, is entirely hand worked. This style flowered around temples and their patronage and so had an almost religious identity – scrolls, temple hangings, chariot banners and the like, depicted deities and scenes taken from the Hindu epics – Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas and the mythological classics.”

What’s ironic is that this craft whose origin was in the Mughal world, Persia, was lovingly embraced and utilized in craftsmanship done for themes originating in Hinduism. Something to think about in the current climate of India where there are fundamentalist leaders proposing to change the name of the Taj Mahal, built by Muslim rulers!

My works often resort to the use of text and symbol, calligraphy, popular icons, etcetera, to register a context to the viewer. In most of my performance art still photographs, my face becomes a canvas representing the topic of address. The combination of the two converts the image into a metaphor – taking away the literal meaning of the words and the obviousness of self-representation.

The Arabic script spelling “Allah” or the Hindi “Om” may not be legible to all, but the significance of wearing a dot or design in between the eyebrows is known to most. the Arabic script spelling “mother” tattooed across the face of the Allah denoted woman or the Hindi script spelling “mother” tattooed across the face of the Hinduism denoted woman may not be legible to all, but what almost everyone is able to perceive is the resonance of the images to the queen of hearts configuration. And what most might also easily guess is the opposite nature of the two faces… despite the fact that they belong to one and the same person!

For those who are aware of the polarized socio-political climate of India, no further explanation is necessary. For those unaware – the story is still about the symbolic motherland separated ideologically but with common challenges.

“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people on it do” the words of Warhol who made it his life’s mission to render faces, mostly those of famous people. This face enacts a few raw emotions, those that may be placed in the category of play acting with props, placements, the whole nine yards. The depth of feelings are easier to enact when done deliberately. In reality one opts for a coping mechanism that can very easily mask the depth of expression. And as Warhol says, the people in pictures always change.

It saddens me to think that art lovers had to pay for their enthusiasm by being shot at with “22 injured, I dead” at the Art All Night Festival. Today, Majority of the practicing artists are resigned to the fact that staying relevant is a challenge they need to cope with while expecting absolutely nothing by way of financial remuneration from the practice itself. With this shoot out, it would appear as though their lives could be at stake, given that most of the art events are held in order to activate the depressed parts of the state.

Dilemma of Durga, oil on canvas

Even though I have always practiced some form of art all my life it wasn’t until much later that I embarked on a carrier path in the arts. Hence, I retained some unfounded beliefs about artists being free spirited, friendly and embracing. Starting out in New Jersey my first break came from Robyn Tremor the director at the Contemporary Art Center in Bedminster where I had my first solo show on Symbolism in Indian Mythology. I remembered being shocked to learn a few days before the show commenced, that someone had punctured with a knife, one of my large oil paintings titled, “The Dilemma of Durga”. The Center was just as shocked and had the piece restored.

I continued with my pursuit of the arts starting with the home state of NJ making absolutely no headway until my very first success at the Torpedo Art Factory, 2011 in the state of Virginia. At the opening reception, the appreciation and attention that my work got was quite overwhelming! Equally overwhelming was the level of work done by the rest of the participating artists. For the first time I wondered why I never had success in my home state prior to this?! Would it be relevant to mention that Robyn Tremor at Contemporary Art Center was originally from Brooklyn and not NJ?

Eventually I had my work exhibit in museums and galleries in many states and countries. Boosted by relative success in other places, I tried once again in my home state of NJ. This time I made it at a juried exhibit at New Jersey Artists Guild in Rahway and the Newark Museum. In my enthusiasm to get to know the rest of the exhibiting artists at the AGNJ, I remember forgetting to take a photo of my own work in the gallery. I took pictures of all the participating artists and found it fascinating to hear about their practice. Despite the fact that much of the conversation was initiated by me, I was optimistic about finding my own tribe close to home!

Robert Kogge

Grigory Gurevich

Pam Cooper

Dan Fenelon

Susan Evans Grove

On the Receiving End of my Otherness

Back to the shootout in Trenton at the art festival, as unfortunate as it is, makes me revisit the karma of the organizers of the festival. It was there that I first encountered extreme racism when I was given a part of their gallery space to organize a show for SIPMA Contemporary. Long story short, an old friend now a partner at a law firm in Manhattan intervened when the gallery would not respect the contract that was signed and threatened not to release works of participating artists in their intent to hurt the reputation of the organizers at SIPMA Contemporary. And that’s not where it ends. The year after in 2017, when we organized a show at the Printmaking Center of New Jersey, the Trenton Gallery got their artists to gang up and make spurious phone calls to NJPC spreading false and harmful rumor about SIPMA, and all because I was their primary contact, and my face was brown. The deep divide among the people of NJ and other parts of the country, makes artists suffer and defeats the purpose of art itself. My hope is that if there is a single purpose to this financially decrepit pursuit, that is art, it will be that of inclusion.

There has been much uproar of late about the exclusion of some of L.N. Tallur’s works from ‘India and the World: A History in Nine Stories’ an exhibition currently going on at the National Museum. Much to the outrage of the arts community, the censorship by the Director General of the National Museum appeared to be on grounds that the depiction of Natraaj was in some way trivialized.

Quite possibly before 2014, when he first exhibited at Jack Shainmann in Chelsea, a short walk away from my work at the time. Since I had obligations to fulfill that evening I stepped out at lunch to take a peek at the exhibit which was due to open that evening. Having learnt that there were more of his works being shown at the other location of the gallery a few blocks down, I set out to see if I could make it to the new location before having to head back to work, just when I stumbled into an apparently sleep deprived Tallur who invited me to his opening in a soft spoken polite tone. Even though I was unable to attend that evening, the works I saw stayed with me and upon encountering them once again at the 2014 armory, I had to do a selfie with it, well not quite, as I hadn’t as yet mastered the skill of taking effective selfies, had to ask someone else.

The image of Natraaj or Shiva engaged in the cosmic dance inside a ring of fire atop a dwarf who represents ignorance and epilepsy. The image is that of tolerance above all else as it has a place for ignorance in the midst of the ultimate quest for creation and liberation. As ubiquitous as the original image might be, it has always been open to interpretation as all symbology is. My own take, Algorhythm and Cosmic Dance, veered from the original to a degree.

Instead of adding my own rant to the disappointment on Mr. Mukherjee’s decision on the matter, let me share Fritjof Capra’s observation on the outcome of organized expression of spirituality. The exhibit being the “organized expression” in this case and our stumbling block clearly is the inability to process a symbol for what it is rather than judging it with bias of conditioning.

Algorhythm, mixed media on canvas, 48×48 inches

Algorhythm at the Phoenix Art Gallery, celebrating South Asian Art

Cosmic Dance, oil on canvas, 36×42 inches

According to Capra, “Spirituality is a perception of reality in a special state of consciousness and the characteristics of this experience of belonging to a larger whole, connected with everything, are independent of historical and cultural context. But then, spiritual teachers who have this experience are eager to share with others – like the Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree…

The organized expression of spirituality is religion, which always depends on cultural and historical context. Unfortunately, religion often ossifies and the teachings are expressed as dogma; experience is replaced by faith. You have to believe; you don’t have to experience. These religions, all over the world, also align themselves with politics and very often with right-wing politics.”

The national museum as indeed are all museums, a place of education, that preserves and pioneers a culture much like the cosmic dance of Shiva if you will? The distortion of an inspiration in its organized presentation is almost inevitable. The mark of a progressive institution lies in recognizing ways in which the distortion may be mitigated. with that, I’d like to recall the words of Jiddu Krishnamurti:

“NONE OF THE agonies of suppression, nor the brutal discipline of conforming to a pattern has led to truth. To come upon truth the mind must be completely free, without a spot of distortion.”